Elevator floor selector

ABSTRACT

A plurality of control discs are mounted on a vertical shaft at those positions corresponding to those floors of a building. The shaft is rotated in response to the travel of an elevator car. An advance element carrying a plurality of deceleration switches is moved ahead of the travelling car at a predetermined advance range. When the advance element reaches and stops at the particular calling floor, an actuator disposed on that disc for the calling floor continues to be rotated to successively operate the switches to decelerate the car until it lands at the calling floor.

United States Patent 1 Ozawa Dec. 11,1973

Callaway 187/29 c-yo Primary Examiner-bernrd A. Gilheany Assistant Examiner-W. E. Duncanson, Jr. Attorney-.E. F. Wenderoth et al.

[57] ABSTRACT A plurality of control discs are mounted on a vertical shaft at those positions corresponding to those floors of a building. The shaft is rotated in response to the travel of an elevator car. An advance element carrying a plurality of deceleration switches is moved ahead of the travelling car at a predetermined advance range. When the advance element reaches and stops at the particular calling floor, an actuator disposed on that disc for the calling floor continues to be rotated to successively operate the switches to decelerate the car until it lands at the calling floor.

3 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Pmmenugm 1 m;

suamurz' \ASUHIKO 0.2mm,

ATTORNEY ELEVATOR FLOOR SELECTOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to floor selectors for use with an elevator system.

In elevator systems the floor selector is used to generate a position-to-speed pattern for determining a deceleration of the associated elevator car from its rated speed to its landing at a selected one of the floors of the building. The conventional type of floor selectors have included one moving member operatively associated with each elevator car to effect a movement reduced to a fraction (I/k) of the actual movement of the car where k is a reduced scale, and one floor reference element or floor stop disposed along the path of movement of the moving member at a position corresponding to that of each floor. Then the position of the moving member relative to that floor stop for a selected one of the floors at which the associated elevator car is to land is mechanically or electrically sensed to generate a deceleration pattern required for that car to be decelerated and stopped 'at the selected floor. In this system the positional accuracy of such a deceleration pattern computed in terms of a magnitude of movement of the elevator car within its shaft depends upon the error made by the floor selector and multiplied by the value of the reduced scale (k). Since conventional floor selectors have a reduced scale usually ranging from 80 to 160 due to a limitation as to the height thereof, it has been difficult to provide a deceleration pattern with a high positional accuracy as desired. Also the deceleration pattern has been generated on the basis of the position of the associated floor stop. Therefore the floor stops have been required to be very carefully disposed along the path of movement of the moving member with a maximum possible accuracy.

In order to improve the positional accuracy of the deceleration pattern to land an elevator car exactly at a selected floor, there have been previously proposed means operatively associated with the moving. member to generate a deceleration pattern under low speed conditions or in the landing zone which is, in turn, with the deceleration pattern under high speed conditions or in the retardation zone generated by the moving member. The deceleration pattern under low speed conditions usually has a reduced scale of from 5 to 40 which is much smaller than the first mentioned reduced scale. The latter pattern can also originate from the actual position of the associated elevator car within its shaft. Both patterns are generally interconnected at a position usually spaced away from each floor by a distance of from 250 to 1,000 mm. In that event a deceleration pattern in the retardation zone is preferably merged into that in the landing zone to form a joint-free or continuous pattern over the total deceleration range, in order to ensure the comfortable ride in the elevator car. In effect, however, it has been difficult to provide a continuous deceleration pattern free from any discontinuity because the pattern in the retardation zone originates from the associated floor stop required to be positioned with a high positional accuracy and further because of the large reduced scale as above described.

Also there are already known floor selectors of another type utilizing a rotating member in the form of a disc. In this type of floor selector, deceleration switches adapted to be operated in response to the rotational movement of the rotating member have been disposed a synchronizer moved in synchronization with the travel of the associated elevator car but on a reduced scale. This measure has led to the necessity of imparting to the disc-shaped rotating member a helical surface the pitch of which is equal to an incremental movement of the synchronizer along the rotatory shaft of the rotating member for each complete rotation of the shaft. The disc-shaped rotating members representative of the positions of the respective floors along the rotatory shaft thereof have been required to be positioned on a helical path defined by such a helical surface resulting in the formation of the rotating member into a helical sector. Under these circumstances, if the total deceleration range for the elevator car exceeds one half the vertical distance between the adjacent floors then there has not been theoretically provided a joint-free or continuous deceleration pattern having a small reduced scale such as above described.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a new and improved floor selector for use with an elevator system for generating a deceleration pattern for determining the deceleration of the associated elevator car from its rated speed to its landing at a selected one of floors the with a high accuracy not affected by the positional accuracy of a moving member and which is inexpensive to manufacture.

It is another object of the invention to provide a new and improved floor selector for use with an elevator system for providing a deceleration pattern required for the associated elevator car to decelerate from its rated speed to a zero speed at which the car lands at a selected one of the floors which pattern has no joint nor discontinuity over the entire deceleration range.

It is still another object of the invention to provide an improved floor selector for use with an elevator system which is inexpensive to manufacture which has a high accuracy by using a large value for a first reduced scale independent of the positional accuracy of a moving element and a small value of a second reduced scale dependent on that accuracy.

It is also one of the objects of the invention to provide a new and improved floor selector for use with an elevator system having a higher accuracy than that previously obtained and which does not require the floor stops or other elements to be disposed with a high positional accuracy.

The invention accomplishes these objects by the provision of a floor selector for use with an elevator car serving a plurality of floors of a building, comprising, a driving shaft rotated in response to the travel of an elevator car, one control element disposed at a position corresponding to that of each of the floors along the driving shaft to be driven by the driving shaft, and a signalling element moved along the rotating shaft and ahead of the traveling elevator while being engageable by each of the control elements at the position corresponding to that of each floor. When the signalling element reaches a selected one of the positions corresponding the floors, the rotational movement of that control element disposed at the selected position causes the signalling element to generate a signal in accordance with the actual position of the traveling elevator car.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an elevator floor selector constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3 'is a perspective view on an enlarged scale of the elements enclosed by the dot-dash line III in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the actuator shown in FIG. 3;

'FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V-V of FIG. 4 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view taken along the line VIVI of FIG. 1 as viewed in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating deceleration patterns produced by a floor selector of the prior art type;

FIG. 8 is a graph illustrating deceleration patterns produced by the arrangement shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 9 is a graph useful in explaining the principles of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention contemplates eliminating the floor stops as above described and other elements disposed with a high positional accuracy. The omission of the floor stops permits various components to be disposed in this place with relatively large tolerances ecen though the first reduced scale as above described is used for some reasons. This is because the position occupied by each of those components is not a direct factor in determining the accuracy with which the deceleration pattern is generated.

The invention also contemplates disposing the abovementioned deceleration switches on an advance element rather than on the synchronizer as above described, which element is adapted to be moving ahead of the associated traveling elevator car while maintaining a predetermined range necessary and sufficient to decelerate and stop the traveling car. When the advance element senses a floor having a floor call registered thereon, it stops at its position representative of the calling floor. This measure permits a simple flat disc to be substituted for the helical sector as above described and will produce a deceleration curve with a high positional accuracy along which the elevator car is decelerated and lands at the selected one of the floors. The curve will continuously spread over the entire range of deceleration required for the traveling car to decelerate and stop at the selected floor. This is, the curve is free of discontinuities.

Referring now to the drawings and FIG. 1 in particular, it is seen that the arrangement disclosed herein comprises a drive device schematically designated at block 10, a horizontal output shaft 12 projecting from the drive device 10, and a sprocket wheel 14 rigidly secured on the output shaft 12 at the free end and having a pin 16 on that face remote from the drive device 10. The sprocket Wheel 14 is also vertically aligned with another sprocket wheel 18 disposed above the same and a length of chain designated at line 20 passes over both sprocket wheels 14 and 18. A driven advance element 22 is connected in the length of chain 20 and carries thereon a support member 24. A collector contact 26 is disposed on a face of the advance element 22 substantially parallel to the tensioned chain 20 and adapted to selectively engage by a plurality of stationary contacts 28-1, 28-2, 28-6 disposed on a vertical board 30 of any suitable electrically insulating material at predetermined intervals proportional to spacing between adjacent floors of a building served by the associated elevator car although the floors car are not illustrated in FIG. I. Only for purpose of illustration it is assumed that the stationary contacts 28 are positioned on the board 30 on the basis of the first or larger reduced scale as previously described. The stationary contacts 28-1, 28-2, 286 are respectively connected to electric contacts of call relays (not shown) disposed on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors.

As shown in the lower and lefthand portion in FIG. 1, the elevator car designated by 010 is connected in a length of perforated flexible tape C-l2 which, in turn, extends between a drive pulley C-14 disposed in a machine room (not shown) and an idle pulley C-16 disposed adajcent the bottom of an elevator shaft (not shown). The drive pulley C-14 has a plurality of projections C-14a at equal angular intervals on the outer periphery to engage perforations (not shown) in the tape C-12, thereby to prevent the tape C-12 from slipping along the pulley C-14. The pulley C44 has also a worm shaft C-18 fixed coaxially thereto for purpose which will be apparent hereinafter.

The drive device 10 is shown in FIG. 6 as including a housing 32 through which the output shaft 12 rotatably extends. Within the housing 32 a friction wheel 34 is mounted on the output shaft 12 in frictional engagement with a rotary shaft 36 of a driving electric motor 38. A bracket 40 is pivotably secured on a pin 42 suitably fixed to the housing 32 and sandwiched between the motor 38 and one side wall of the housing 32 through a compression spring 44 located between the same and that side wall. The compression spring 44 serves to bias the motor 38 toward the output shaft 12 to cause the motor shaft 36 to engage the friction wheel 34 with a force higher than the force required for the output shaft 12 to drive the advance element 22 through the sprocket wheels 14, 18 and the chain 20. However, the spring 44 is prevented from applying an excessively high force to the associated components when the pin 16 reaches either of the ends of its stroke as will be described hereinafter.

Referring back to FIG. 1, an operating rod 46 is disposed coaxially with the output shaft 12 and rotatably supported by a pair of bearings 48 to be rotated in synchronization with the travel of the associated elevator car (C-10). A restricting disc 50 is rigidly secured on the operating rod 46 at that end adjacent the output shaft 12 and directly opposite to the lower sprocket wheel 14. As best shown in FIG. 2, the restricting disc 50 is provided at the outer peripheral edge with a notch 50a in which the pin 16 on the sprocket wheel 14 is engaged. The notch 50a has a circumferential length sufficient to establish the end positions 16A and 16B of the pin 16 when the advance element 22 is at a predetermined maximum advance range ahead of the traveling elevator car in each of the up and down directions which will be described hereinafter. At that time. the

pin 16 abuts against either of the ends of the notch 50a. For example, the pin 16 can reach the lefthand end as viewed in FIG. 2 of the notch 50a as shown by the dotted circle 16A in FIG. 2 in the up direction. In the down direction, the pin 16 will reach the righthand end of the notch 50a as shown by the dotted circle 168 in FIG. 2. Thereafter the pin 16 is prevented from being further rotated with respect to the restricting disc 50 and is forced to follow the rotational movement of the latter. By the term maximum advance range is meant a range over which an elevator car travels while it decelerates in accordance with a predetermined deceleration pattern until the car lands at the adjacent floor.

As shown in FIG. 1, a small bevel gear 52 is mounted on the operating rod 46 intermediate both ends in mesh with a large bevel gear 54 which is, in turn, connected to a vertical driving shaft 56 rotatably supported at the upper and lower ends by a pair of bearings 58. The shaft 56 is threaded substantially throughout the length thereof.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the support member 24 on the advance element 22 is in the form of a ring or a hollow cylinder of relatively short length connected to the advance element 22 by an arm. The cylindrical support member 24-has a plurality of ascending deceleration switches S S and S and a plurality of descending deceleration switches S 8, and Sag such as microswitches disposed at predetermined positions on the outer peripheral surface. The threaded. shaft 56 centrally extends through the cylindrical support member 24 and has a plurality of control discs 60-1, 60-2, 60-6 mounted thereon in spaced, parallel relationship one for each of the floors as shown in FIG. 1. The positions of these control discs represent those of the corresponding floors along the axis of the shaft 56 and on the basis of the first reduced scale as above described. Therefore the control discs are substantially level with the centers of the stationary contacts 28 on the vertical board 30. For example, the control disc 60-1 is fixedly secured on the shaft 56 at a position corresponding to that of the first floor by a pair of nuts 62 (only one of which is illustrated in FIG. 3) screw threaded onto the shaft 56 to firmly sandwich the disc 60-1 therebetween.

The control discs 60-1, 60-2, 60-6 have on the peripheries respective actuators 64-1, 64-2, 64-6 in the form of truncated prisms of rectangular cross section adapted to selectively engage the deceleration switches on the cylindrical support member 24. As best shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the actuator 64 includes four lateral faces 64a, 64b, 64c and 64d and a top face64e directed radially of the associated control disc 60. The lateral faces are at such angles to the top face that the actuator is permitted to selectively engage the switches on the support member 24 via any one of the lateral faces without any hindrance. The control discs 60 with the actuator 64 are so dimensioned that the control disc can freely pass through the moving hollow cylindrical member 24 while the actuator can engage and actuate that switch on the member 24 facing the same.

When the elevator car is located at a selected one of the floors, for example, the first floor, the actuator 64 on the corresponding control disc 60 such as the actuator 64-1 is located between the switches S, and S, and prevented from actuating any of the switches S, and 8,, as shown in FIG. 3. The remaining control discs 60 and actuators 64 pprovided for the floors 2through 6 are 6 identical in construction and arrangement to those shown in FIG. 3.

The arrangement thus far described is operated as follows: The drive device 10 is arranged to start simultaneously with or slightly prior to the starting of the associated elevator car and such that the direction of movement of the advance element 22 is identical with the direction of movement of the car. The drive device 10 has a driving speed equal to twice the rated speed of the elevator car or more. If the drive device 10 is started early, the driving speed may be equal to one and a half times the rated speed of the car or more. It is essential that the drive 10 should always drive the advance element 22 such that it is sufficiently far ahead of the traveling elevator car that it maintains a deceleration range required for the car to begin to be decelerated from its actual speed in accordance with a predetermined deceleration pattern until it lands at a selected one of the floors. The drive device 10 stop driving the advance element 22 in response to the sensing of the particular calling floor by the latter.

Assuming that an elevator car operatively associated with the arrangement of FIG. 1 is located at the first floor, the collector contact 26 on the.advance element 22 is in engagement with the stationary contact 28-1 as shown in FIG. 1 and the pin 16 on the sprocket wheel 14 is positioned at the midpoint of the notch 50a on the restricting disc 50 as shown in FIG. 2. Also, as above described, the actuator 64-1 on the control disc 60-1 is positioned intermediate the switch S,, and the switch S Under these circumstances, it is assumed that a floor call has been registered on the four floor to produce an instruction for moving the associated elevator car from the first floor upwardly or in the up direction. This causes the drive device 10 to be rotated, for example, in the direction of the arrow A shown in FIG. 1 to permit the pin 16 to move the advance element 22 upwardly along the driving shaft 56 through the sprocket wheels 14, 18 and the chain 20 within the region of the notch 50a on the disc 50 and prior to the movement of the elevator car and therefore of the rotatory rod 46. Thereafter the upward movement of the car is initiated thereby to rotate the rod 46 in the same direction as the drive device 10 or in the direction of the arrow A shown in FIG. 1 through the worm shaft C-18 and a worm wheel 46a mounted on the other end of the rod 46 in mesh with the worm shaft C-18. After some time has elapsed, the pin 16 is in engagement with one end 16A of the notch 50a. From that time, the sprocket wheel 14 dr iven by the drive device 10 is forced to follow the rotational movement of the restricting disc 50 with the result that the sprocket wheel 14 is rotated at the same speed as the disc 50. In other words, the advance element 22 continues to be moved upwardly at the same speed as the elevator car while the same maintains the maximum advance range as above described ahead of the traveling car in the upward direction.

This upward movement of the advance element 22 is accompanied by the upward movement of the support member 24 during which the actuators 64-1, 64-2 and 64-3 may push against some of the switches S, through S to close them. The closure of the switches has no effect upon the system because the call relay contacts (not shown) connected to the contacts 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3 for the first, second and third floor have no floor call registered thereon.

Upon engagement of the collector contact 26 on the advance element 22 with the stationary contact 28-4 for the fourth floor having a floor call registered thereon, a stop instruction is delivered in a well known manner to stop the rotational movement of the drive device 10 and therefore the upward movement of the advance element 22. Thus the support member 24 also stops at its relative position around the control disc 60-4 similar to the position shown in FIG. 3, where the actuator 64-4 can engage and actuate the deceleration switches on the support member 24. It is to be noted here that the advance element 22 may stop with a positional accuracy sufficient to permit the deceleration switches S, through S, on the support member 24 to be engaged and actuated by that actuator 64 facing the support member as will be fully described hereinafter. Usually the advance element 22 has a permissible error of i2 mm as to its stopping position.

After the advance element 22 has been stopped, the associated elevator car continues to travel in the upward direction so that the operating rod 46 continues to be rotated in the direction of the arrow A shown in FIG. 1. This is accompanied by a further rotation of the control discs 60-1 through 60-6 in the direction of the arrow B shown in FIG. 3. Thus the actuator 64-4 on the control disc 60-4 successively actuates the switches 8 S and S, in the named order with the result that the car is decelerated and stopped at the fourth floor. Under these circumstances, the elevator car may overshoot the desired floor, in this case, the fourth floor. This causes the actuator 64-4 to actuate the switch S, to return the car to the fourth floor until the car is stopped at the floor and the disc 60-4 is stopped at such a position that none of the switches SUl and S, is operated.

While the ascending and descending deceleration switches S through S and S, through S, respectively are shown in FIG. 3 as being disposed on one portion of the periphery of support cylinder 24 it is to be understood that each set of the ascending and descending switches may be disposed on the periphery of the cylindrical member 24 substantially throughout its length. For example, assuming that the elevator car is stopped at the fourth floor, the ascending deceleration switch S is mounted on the periphery of the support cylinder 24 at its position adjacent the actuator 64-4 and the remaining ascending switches S 8, are distributed on the substantially entire periphery of the cylindrical support member 24 in the named order. On the other hand, the descending deceleration switch S, is attached to the cylindrical member 24 adjacent that side of the actuator cam 64-4 opposite to the switch S, and the remaining switches 8, 8, are disposed on the substantially entire periphery of the cylindrical member 24 in the named order and in a direction opposite to the direction in which the ascending switches S S are arranged.

During the rotational movement of the disc 60-4 effected between the actuation of that deceleration switch farthest remote from the landing point, in example illustrated, the switch S by actuator 64-4 and the landing of the car, for example, at the fourth floor, the car can move a distance somewhat shorter than the maximum advance range given by the advance element 22. In other words, when the pin 16 is in contact with the restricting disc 50 at one end of the notch 50a, the switches S through S carried by the advance element 24 having stopped in response to a floor call registered on the particular floor can be operated by the actuator 64 on the disc 60 provided for that floor to generate all command signals for decelerating the traveling car from its rated speed in the particular direction of travel to a null speed at its landing point.

For a better understanding of the invention, deceleration patterns or command deceleration curves will now be described in conjunction with FIGS. 7 and 8. In these Figures,'a command magnitude of deceleration is plotted on the ordinate against a position of an elevator car on the abscissa and the zone above the axis of abscissas represents the upward travel while the zone below that axis represents the downward travel of the elevator car. The reference characters IF, 2F, 6F designate the positions of the first, second, and sixth floors.

FIG. 7 shows one deceleration pattern for each floor generated by the prior art type of floor selectors. In the retardation zone in which an elevator car travels at a high speed approximating its rated speed, the car slow down in accordance with a deceleration pattern as shown by a dotted line resulting from that floor stop with a first reduced scale as high as from to I60 provided for a desired floor where the car is to land. Then the car enters the landing zone at a point usually spaced away from that floor by a distance of from 250 to 1,000 mm as previously described. In the landing zone, the speed of the car is groverned by the associated landing pattern as shown by a solid line in FIG. 7 until it lands at the desired floor. The landing pattern is derived by any suitable means provided for that purpose and has a second reduced scale as low as from 5 to 40 as previously described. Alternatively, it may be derived from the actual position of the car within its shaft and have no reduced scale. Under these circumstances, it is inherently difficult to merge the deceleration pattern into the associated landing pattern, that is to say, to interconnect both patterns without any difference in magnitude therebetween at the junction. That is, a discontinuous pattern is generally produced.

The arrangement of FIG. 1 provides a continuous pattern for each floor as shown in FIG. 8.

The operation of the actuator 64 and the deceleration switches S, through S will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

In FIG. 9, the ordinate OY represents the positions of the floors 1F, 2F, 6F on the basis of the first reduced scale as previously described and the abscissas OX represents the length of the developed periphery of each control disc 60 on the basis of the second reduced scale as previously described. One elongated rectangle at the position of each floor designates a region in which the associated actuator is effective for operating the deceleration switches and is represented by the same numeral as the corresponding actuator. For example, rectangle 64-4 shows such a region for the actuator 64-4. An oblique line OC is shown in FIG. 9 as passing through the origin 0 with an angle of 6 with re spect to the axis OX. The angle 0 fulfills the relationship tan 0 L/rrD where D is the diameter of the control disc, and L is the magnitude of incremental movement of the elevator car on the first reduced scale for each complete rotation of the disc.

It will readily be understood that the oblique line 0C corresponds to the actual movement of the elevator car converted into a helical movement thereof about the axis of the control shaft 56 on the first reduced scale. All the effective regions of the actuators 64 are of the same dimension and centered at points P P P where the oblique line OC intersects straight lines passing through ordinates of the respective floors and parallel to the axis OX. For example, the region 64-4 is centered at the point P3.

It is assumed that, as previously described, a floor call has been registered on the fourth floor with the elevator car located at the first floor. Under the assumed condition, the drive device 10 responds to a control signalfrom a controller (not shown) to start the advance element 22 in the upward direction simultaneously with or immediately prior to the starting of the elevator car C-l0. The advance element 22 follows a first broken segment of a dotted curve shown in FIG. 9 as starting from the point P Also the elevator car is started and accelerated in accordance with an acceleration curve shown by the thick dot line in FIG. 8. It is recalled that the speed of the advance element 22 is equal to or higher than two or one and a half times the rated speed of the elevator car as the case may be.

The pin 16 on the sprocketwheel 14 soonreaches the extremety 16A of the notch 50a on the restricting disc 50 (see FIG. 2). At that time, the advance element 22 is ahead of the traveling elevator car by the maximum advance range at above describdd and simultaneouslyv a separate switch (not shown) is operated to slow down the motor 38 to a speed somewhat higher than that corresponding to the rated speed of the elevator. car thereby to decelerate the advance element 22. Alternatively, the compression spring 44 may be adjusted to permit the friction wheel 34 to slightly slip with respect to the rotating shaft 36 of the motor 38 to attain the same purpose. Therefore the advance element 22 continues to ascend while it keeps the maximum advance range in front of the traveling car. This ascending movement of the advance element is shown by the second broken segment of the dotted curve substantially parallel to the oblique line OC in FIG. 9.

Then the advance element 22 reaches the fourth floor to engage the collector contact 26 thereon with the stationary contact 28-4 for the fourth floor having the call registered thereon. This causes the motor 38 stop and therefore the advance element 22 to be stopped. However the control disc 60-4 on the control shaft 56 continues to be rotated to permit the associated actuator 64-4 to successively actuate the deceleration switches S and S to decelerate the elevator car in accordance with the continuous deceleration curve for the fourth floor as shown in FIG. 8 until the elevator car lands at the fourth floor, as above described. The rotational movement of the actuator 64-4 on the control disc 60-4 mounted on the rotating shaft 56 follows the travel of the elevator car on the basis of the second or smaller reduced scale and can be shown by the third broken segment of the dotted curve parallel to the axis OX.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that the process as above described can be repeated in either of the upward and downward directions for the elevator car, in order to land the car at any desired floor having a floor call registered thereon.

The advance element 22 may be stopped at such a position that the deceleration switches 8,, and 8,, carried by the advance element 22 occupy positions somewhat deviating from their desired positions relative to the particular control disc 60 on the axis of the control shaft 56. In other words, the advance element 22 may be stopped at a level slightly higher or lower than that of the particular point of intersection P for example of the point P shown in FIG. 9. This, however, never affects the positional accuracy of the resulting deceleration pattern as long as the switches are effectively engageable by the actuator opposite thereto. As above described, the actuator 64 includes the top face 64e extending for some length in the axial direction of the associated control disc 60 or along the coordinate axis OY as shown in FIG. 9. Thus a region in which the actuator 64 is enabled to engage each of the deceleration-switches has tolerances along the axis OY. This means that, upon mounting the control discs on the driving shaft, the angular positions of the discs and therefore of the actuators relative to a reference can be determined with a higher accuracy and far more easily than the conventional floor stops required to be positioned with a high accuracy on the basis of the first or larger reduced scale. This is because the coordinate axis OX is based upon the second or smaller reduced scale. Also the axial position of each disc on the driving shaft can be determined with a relatively rough accuracy on the basis of the first reduced scale. Thus the advance element carrying the deceleration switches is required only to be selectively stopped along the axis OY with an engaging allowance defined by the top face of the actuator. Since the top face can be a few millimeters long in the axial direction of the associated control disc, the latter may be mounted on the control shaft with an allowance of :2 millimeters. Further any positional error in the stoppage of the advance element is not acumulative so that it does not affect a further operation of the arrangement as shown in FIG. 1.

While the invention has been illustrated in conjunction with a single preferred embodiment thereof it is to be understood that numerous changes in the details of construction and the arrangement and combination of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the invention is equally applicable to the deceleration of an elevator car from its actual speed less than its rated speed. Instead of the combination of the actuator on the control discs and the deceleration switches, a combination of a magnet and read switches or photocells may be used to produce the required signals. Alternatively, the required deceleration pattern may be generated by electrodynamic induction means comprising an electromagnetic induction plate substituted from each control disc and an electromagnetic coil substituted for each of the deceleration switches. The electromagnetic induction plate and coil have a well known construction but they should be operated with the allowance or tolerances in the coordinate axis OY as above described.

What is claimed is:

1. A signal generator for an elevator serving a plurality of floors of a building, comprising, in combination, a driving shaft rotated in response to the travel of an elevator car, a plurality of control elements disposed along said shaft and fixed at positions corresponding to each of the floors and rotated by said driving shaft, driving means different from that driving the elevator, coupling means comprised of a rotary member rotated in synchronization with the travel of the elevator car and an advance rotary member driven by said driving means, said advance rotary member engaging and rotating together with said synchronously rotated rotary member after said advance rotary member is rotated by said driving means through at least an angle corresponding to a maximum distance between a floor position and the actual position of the elevator, a signalling element disposed in a plane corresponding to a plane of rotation of said control elements and concentrically disposed around said driving shaft, said signal element having at least one signal generating means thereon engageable by a control element during rotation of a control element within said signalling element, said signalling element being coupled to said advance rotary member and driven thereby along said driving shaft ahead of the elevator, and stop means for each floor disposed along said driving shaft at positions corresponding to said control elements and adapted to be coupled to call buttons for the respective floors to be activated by the call buttons, said stop means being engageable by said signal element in its movement along said driving shaft and being coupled to said driving means for stopping said driving means when activated and engaged by said signal element for stopping the signal element at a control element corresponding to a floor for which a call button has been activated, whereby the signal element stops at a control element corresponding to a floor from which a call has come and the rotation of the control element generates a signal in accordance with the actual position of the traveling elevator.

2. A signal generator as claimed in claim 1 in which said control elements each comprise a flat disc with at least one switch actuator element thereon, and said signal generating means on said signal element comprises at least one switch.

3. A signal generator as claimed in claim 2 in which there are a plurality of switches on said signal element which are adapted to be coupled to the elevator drive means for decelerating the drive means to decelerate the elevator for stopping at the floor from which the call has come. 

1. A signal generator for an elevator serving a plurality of floors of a building, comprising, in combination, a driving shaft rotated in response to the travel of an elevator car, a plurality of control elements disposed along said shaft and fixed at positions corresponding to each of the floors and rotated by said driving shaft, driving means different from that driving the elevator, coupling means comprised of a rotary member rotated in synchronization with the travel of the elevator car and an advance rotary member driven by said driving means, said advance rotary member engaging and rotating together with said synchronously rotated rotary member after said advance rotary member is rotated by said driving means through at least an angle corresponding to a maximum distance between a floor position and the actual position of the elevator, a signalling element disposed in a plane corresponding to a plane of rotation of said control elements and concentrically disposed around said driving shaft, said signal element having at least one signal generating means thereon engageable by a control element during rotation of a control element within said signalling element, said signalling element being coupled to said advance rotary member and driven thereby along said driving shaft ahead of the elevator, and stop means for each floor disposed along said driving shaft at positions corresponding to said control elements and adapted to be coupled to call buttons for the respective floors to be activated by the call buttons, said stop means being engageable by said signal element in its movement along said driving shaft and being coupled to said driving means for stopping said driving means when activated and engaged by said signal element for stopping the signal element at a control element corresponding to a floor for which a call button has been activated, whereby the signal element stops at a control element corresponding to a floor from which a call has come and the rotation of the control element generates a signal in accordance with the actual position of the traveling elevator.
 2. A signal generator as claimed in claim 1 in which said control elements each comprise a flat disc with at least one switch actuator element thereon, and said signal generating means on said signal element comprises at least one switch.
 3. A signal generator as claimed in claim 2 in which there are a plurality of switches on said signal element which are adapted to be coupled to the elevator drive means for decelerating the drive means to decelerate the elevator for stopping at the floor from which the call has come. 